The Broken Song
by CrystalSparkyStar
Summary: The Cyclonians have captured the Condor. Now, they are close to winning the war. As a side effect of Stork resulting to desperate measures to get his ship back, Aerrow ends up stuck in the Wastelands. Meanwhile, the Sky Knights and the remaining Storm Hawks are preparing for what will possibly be their biggest battle yet.
1. Prologue

The Broken Song is one known by all the people of Atmos. It is known as the song of heartache, of sorrow, of pain, of loss, of failure. It was the song of war, war that the side of good lost. It was only to be sung at times when all hope was lost. When great, infallible Sky Knights fell in battle. In the time of Aerrow and his friends, it had been heard twice; once after the betrayal of the now Dark Ace, who had killed Lighting Strike, the greatest of Sky Knights, during the battle for Terra Gale. Both sides had lost so much in a single day; the Sky Knights, their champion and hope for a brighter future, and Cyclonia, two generations of leadership. Both sides had lost other men and women that they called brothers and sisters, friends and allies, and with those losses caused a ten-year cease-fire before the war awoke once more and the skies became filled with shouts of battle. But on that day, the Broken Song was spoken in unison from both sides:

It is said there will be a day,

When the birds will fly away,

And with them our hopes and dreams

Their melody replaced by screams.

The days will grow dark and hope will fade,

Men and women will stand side by side,

Towards a hopeless war they will ride,

Their families left to their own sad fate.

Crimson skies, announce the last battle,

Wings clipped, they scream as they fall,

Foes don't hear and friends can't save them,

The fiery Wasteland now awaits them.

To their loved ones – they're now just a memory,

When asked about their reason to fight, to die,

After days of searching – they realize,

There was no real reason – just a lie.

They scream in anguish for an answer,

No one replies – now it's too late to matter,

Withered wings die in one last small flutter.

For they know-

Evil had won.

That was the Broken Song. The Sky Knights did not know why such a song was in the Code, but it was written in to be sung at times like this. All the Sky Knights knew it by heart for the day they might be called to sing it, but hoped never to do so. Aerrow knew it too; he had heard it the day they buried those empty coffins of his father and the former Storm Hawks.

He did not know that history was soon to repeat itself; that the song was going to honor the same squadron.

* * *

**Hi, it's me again! Some of you may know me as the Ridiculous Procrastinator who last year tried to write a story here – an attempt that sadly, didn't end too well. *dodges flying tomatoes* Yes, well, I promise I'm not going to chicken out of this one, too! *gladly receives a tomato in the face for that* Anyways, this story is written in collaboration with Evilhumour Author and most of the credit for it goes to him. He came up with the plot, song, idea - you name it - and I agreed to co-write.**

**That's all - I'm out.**


	2. Chapter 1

Who knew that a carrier would be so hard to capture?

It wasn't that the Storm Hawks were hard to find, or follow. No, they couldn't be more obvious even if they hanged a neon sign over their heads and launched fireworks.

It was only that they so rarely left the damn thing! At any given time, there was one – or two, if you count the pet – that stayed behind and guarded the ship.

The Cyclonian Elite Special Team 4 did their homework, both on the ship itself and the crew of it. Based on what the various people and non-people who tried to sneak aboard said, the green paranoid one was very fond of boobytraps.

He couldn't stay on the ship forever. What sane person could? Although, from what they gathered, the Merb wasn't exactly the paragon of sanity, but _still_! He had to go outside, someday.

Someday, there would be a slip.

There always was.

Another irritating thing was that they rarely landed, and even then, the aforementioned problems would ensue. Capturing nomadic squadrons was always harder than the ones who stayed on a single Terra. At least the stationary squadrons did things other than messing around in the ship. They had families to take care of, meetings to attend, administrative issues to take care of, shopping to do, dogs to walk in the park, their lives didn't revolve around the carrier! Not the same could be said for the former.

Finally, after days of spying and chasing after wild geese, they had the occasion to get the ship. The squadron was on Tropica's beach, apparently, taking a vacation. From what, the Cyclonian team couldn't imagine. It wasn't like they had actual _jobs_, or anything!

Hidden between the leaves, they watched from the edge of the forest as one by one, the Storm Hawks got out. One, two, three, the pet, four, five... Their commander gave a silent signal and they all activated their Invisibility Crystals.

…Six.

The paranoid Merb didn't want to come out.

...

Damn.

* * *

Sun, sand and the sea.

It was a beautiful day on Terra Tropica, the Storm Hawks' absolute favorite vacancy destination. Aerrow was surfing, Finn and Junko were making a barbecue, Piper was sunbathing and Raddar, when he wasn't busy being chased by crabs, was collecting seashells.

All in all, everybody was having fun.

Everybody except Stork.

"Aw, come on, dude! Stop being like this!" For fifteen minutes, Finn was trying to get Stork to come out of the _Condor_ and onto the beach with them. The key word being: try. Currently, he wasn't having a lot of luck with that and was seriously starting to consider having Junko just pick him up and throw him out of the ship. Why did he always had to be Mr. No?

Stork crossed his arms and looked away. "I preffer being like this and _alive_, thank you very much."

Finn sighed. "Dude, it's just a beach. It's not like you're walking into a Cyclonian deathtrap."

"Stork, at least take one step outside!" Piper shouted, lifting her sunglasses. "The sand is perfect!"

"How do you know it's not quicksand?" Stork shouted back. Piper rolled her eyes and went back to sunbathing.

"Come on, Stork, these Sky Burgers aren't going to eat themselves~" Junko tried, cheerfully waving a steak in the air.

Somehow, despite Junko's good intentions, that reassured neither Stork, or the rest of the Storm Hawks. Given their experience with the stuff Junko cooked – and liked to eat, for that matter – it was a _very_ real possibility that the food really _was_ going to eat itself.

Stork's shoulders fell and he let out a defeated sigh. "You are not going to leave me alone until I join in, are you?" All of them shook their heads, still smiling. "Then I suppose I'll just have to give in to the madness..."

He barely made three steps outside the ship – after scanning the sand for vampire fleas, of course – when his head snapped up, a horrified expression on his face.

"Wait! I forgot to set the traps! What if–"

"Stork, the only things that could sneak up on the Condor are crabs. Now _please_, lighten up and forget about it."

It took Stork a while to stop telling them that they were infected with mindworms. It took him even longer – although, that went for all the Storm Hawks – to dare to get within ten meters of Junko's 'Sky Burgers'. After Stork declared them 'relatively safe', everyone decided to try their luck and eat.

None of them noticed the trails of footsteps in the sand, approaching the Condor.

None of them saw the blasts coming.

The fact that they were at the moment, gathered around Junko's grill didn't help, either.

Their only warning was the roar of the engines coming to life and next thing they knew was that they were lying in the sand, feeling nothing but pain, as a barrage of fire was raining down upon them.

The ground was exploding and sand was flying in every direction...

...

And then black.

* * *

Snipe yawned.

Ravess frowned, but continued to watch the approaching Terra.

Snipe yawned again. "Stop it," Ravess said, through gritted teeth.

It had no effect. Three yawns later, Ravess closed her eyes and started counting to ten, resisting the urge to bang her head against the Condor's windows _and_ to throw Snipe right through them.

Yawn.

"Snipe, I said stop it! That's an order!" Raves snapped._ If you make one more dying sky whale sound, I'll toss you into the Wastelands._

But no way Snipe would pay attention to that! He stretched his hands out, purposefully smacking Ravess across the head.

That was it! Ravess had it. She balled her hand into a fist and hit Snipe with three times more force, enough to send him flying across the Condor's deck and into a windpipe.

"But it's four o'clock in the morning! _Nobody_ should be awake this early!" Snipe whined, while putting himself together and getting up.

Dying sky whale sounds or not, it was a valid point, Ravess could give him that. On the other hand, it still didn't give him the right to act like a toddler more than he usually did. No, she wasn't happy about the late hour either and yes, even taking into account the fact that their position in the war had never been better, their current situation _majorly_ sucked. Neither of the Cyclonians on the ship – including the two of them and the Dark Ace – wanted to be there, attacking at that ungodly hour, but that didn't mean they should make the situation worse than it already was.

"Just because you are a lazy waste of space, doesn't mean everybody else is. The Dark Ace has no problem with it."

"That's because he fell asleep when we were passing over Terra Tranqua." Snipe pointed to a corner of the deck. The Dark Ace leaned against the a corner, eyes closed and head tilted to the left. It wasn't much of a difference; he wasn't very... sociable when he was awake, either. Certainly not as loud, or obnoxious as Snipe, and when he wasn't insulting him – sometimes both – for being stupid, he'd just snort in disgust and mind his own business, far away from them. No wonder Ravess didn't even notice when that happened – she was surprised Snipe did it. But she guesses that was obvious; when a person leans against a wall and doesn't move for more than two hours, another person, no matter how stupid, would assume the other one is asleep.

A grin appeared on his face. Ravess instantly had a bad feeling about it. "Hey, got something I can throw at him to wake him up?"

Ravess shot him a '_I can't believe I'm related to you_' glare.

"Come on, it's not fair that he gets to sleep and I don't!"

"Sure! Why not draw him a moustache, while you're at it?" she hissed.

As usual, the sarcasm flew right over Snipe's head. "Good idea! Is there a marker nearby?" he asked looking around, apparently taking her question seriously.

"Do that and the lack of sleep will be the least of your problems." The Dark Ace was now glaring at them from the corner, a look that clearly said 'I already knew you were idiots, but I thought you were at least smart enough to know what's good for you'.

"Sorry, I can't imagine where he gets there terrible ideas from." Ravess thought she deserved an award. She managed to say that with a straight face, after all!

"Save your excuses," the Dark Ace snapped. "What's our position?"

"We are currently above Blizzaris," she answered, flatly.

"Then stop wasting air and get to your positions!"

The three snow gliders below weren't easy to ignore. The fun-loving Absolute Zeroes were engaged in their favorite pastime: extremely dangerous extreme stunts of extremeness. If you asked Ravess, they could've been easily overlooked; they so rarely left their cold Terra and even when they did, they were close to non-entities, because their rides didn't function well at temperatures above 0.

But making exceptions wasn't good for the reputation.

Snipe went to the cannon on the left side of the ship and aimed it for the group of snow gliders. Ravess, however, didn't even touch the thing. Who needed blast cannons when she had her trusty bow and arrows?

Now, if only those crazy circus acrobats would _stand still_ for one second…

Oh, there we go! The morons had stopped; apparently, they were racing each other and they got at the finish line. Ravess and Snipe opened fire.

It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

* * *

A few days later, the squadrons were dropping like flies. Literally.

The Rex Guardians had just finished an autograph session and were in the middle of painting their symbol in the skies above the Terra. Shouts of adoration could be heard from the giant arena below.

The awe turned into shock and fear when the Condor appeared out of nowhere and turned the squadron's skimmers into smoking bits of rubble, falling to the ground. A rain of fire was unleashed upon the landing strip as well.

As the Condor disappeared between the clouds, the parachuted squadron looked after the ship, their minds still trying to comprehend what had just happened.

* * *

Dove managed to get her grandfather, Wren out of his small shack on Gale just before several blue crystal fire blasts blew it to smithereens.

* * *

Starling was on a routine patrol mission.

A smile appeared on her face when she saw her friends' carrier. _It had been a while,_ she thought, _since I saw them. May as well pay them a visit._ Although she'd been some kind of a lone wolf since the death of her squadron, there were times when she wanted company; wanted to feel like she was part of a family again.

That was one of those times. She turned around in midair and headed for the Condor.

The hangar bay door was opening, but there was no response. No greetings, no nothing. That was odd. Piper or Aerrow would've at least said "Hello!". Despite having a funny feeling about all that, Starling decided not to worry too much. It probably wasn't a big deal.

She saw a flicker of red light in the hangar bay and before she knew it, Ravess had already sent an arrow towards her.

She didn't snap out of the stunned surprise fast enough to dodge it.


	3. Chapter 2

It is a well known fact that, when a huge crowd of angry people is assembled into one, not really large room, they are probably not going to start building Lego castles or exchange pie recipes. Chances are they're just going to talk loudly over each other, shout and, after a couple of minutes, completely forget what they were yelling about in the first place. Occasionally, they will attempt to reduce the level of tension by decorating with bruises the nearest person's face.

In short, crowds are like a really bad-tempered tyke-bomb and need to be treated with gloves.

The gathering of Sky Knights on Atmosia made no exception.

"Silence! Order!" A small, hunchbacked old man was sitting at the council desk, repeatedly hitting the hard, flat surface with a gavel, in a desperate attempt to bring some semblance of normality into the madness. "For skies' sake, people, have some manners!"

His attempts only earned him a couple of delightful answers, such as "Shut up, can't you see we're busy?!" and "If I hear that gavel one more time, the desk won't be the only thing that it'll hit!"

The councilman couldn't locate the sources of the shouts, not even after adjusting his glasses. However, judging by the tone that was used, the respective people sounded like they really meant what they'd just said. And etiquette be damned, he may have been old, but he wasn't bored of living, at least not yet. He shook his head and walked away from the high-placed council desk. He knew he should have bought that vacation cottage on Tropica and retired there when he had the chance!

"This situation is unacceptable!" Harrier, of the Rex Guardians was hardly one of the most intimidating-looking Sky Knights there; that distinction went to the fierce Third Degree Burners – Blister, especially – who had at any given time a clear area around them, despite the hall's limited space. Their piercings, the tattoos and the general air of 'I'm so cross I want to smash the nearest – living or not – thing' may have had something to do with it. However, Harrier was one of the loudest. "We must do something about that bloody squadron. These horrid attacks must be stopped immediately!"

"Yes, yes, Harrier, we all agree that something should be done. Unfortunately, we currently lack the means with which to retaliate. If you wish to attack them on a heli-bicycle, then be our guest," Suzy Lu, of the Absolute Zeroes said.

"My pleasure, _madam_." The pompous air around Harrier was almost tangible. "At least I will be doing _something_ to avenge these great losses."

"Excuse me, but your great loss translates to 'I don't have a place where to sign autographs for my fans anymore, because my arena is gone!' Get your priorities straight, will you?" the leader of the Screaming Queens, Kaya, retorted.

"Wait – _that_ is why he is so upset?" Dove couldn't believe her ears. "My home is gone and me and Grandfather have nowhere to live! How can some people be so selfish?" The girl and the rest of the Rebel Ducks glared in the direction of the Rex Guardians.

Harrier crossed his arms and looked away. "Whatever. Anytime you're willing to propose a solution that doesn't involve throwing a toilet seat at them with a catapult, let us know."

That only gave the tone to another round of shouting. The Rebel Ducks were arguing with the Rex Guardians, the Absolute Zeroes with the Third Degree Burners, the Screaming Queens with the Buff Buzzards. The only squadron which was not bickering with anyone was the Neck Deeps of Aquanos. The group of fish-men kept away from the general mess, occupying a group of chairs and casting bored looks at the other squadrons. Nobody was getting anywhere with that charade and they knew it. Finally, having had it with all of it, their leader, Tritonn, stood up. "Enough, stop it." The Sky Knights paused for a moment, which they used to give him some irritated glances. Unfazed, he continued: "You're all arguing worse than a load of sky sailors in a tavern. We're all on the same side, here. We shouldn't be fighting between ourselves; we should be focusing on how to solve the real problem."

"In that case, come up with an idea, Tritonn! Should we throw a fishing net at them, or what?" Blister asked.

"Actually, we could..." Suzy Lu frowned. 'Nah, no way. Those things can barely stay afloat, anyway."

"Then what should we do?" one of the Buff Buzzards asked.

Again, everybody turned to look at Tritonn.

"What? Why are you all looking at me like this? Just because I say we should focus on the real problem, that doesn't mean I automatically know how to solve it!"

"This is horrible." Dove sighed and fell into a chair. "We are not getting anywhere with this."

Suzy Lu came behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Girl, that's bureaucracy, for ya!" she said, with a sympathetic smile.

"I say we get some scientists, assemble some skyrides and go after those brats, how's that?" Blister asked.

"Sure, if you want to walk all the way to the nearest Terra that has some, then great idea!" Kaya said. "Didn't you hear what the Blizzarian girl said earlier?'

Harrier's head snapped in her direction. "Excuse _me_, but what exactly, may I ask, is wrong with–"

"Shut it, ponytail guy," Suzy Lu cut him off. "The chick's right – I'd rather walk."

Blister threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "Well damn, this is going so well! No wonder we've all got our wings cut off by a bunch of kids."

"You said it." Suzy Lu muttered.

Then, surprisingly, the hall didn't erupt into senseless bickering again The Sky Knights sighed and stared at the floor, in a mix of shame and concentration. No one was giving anyone the stink-eye anymore.

"They destroyed my shipyards," the lone voice of Tritonn said.

"They left me and Grandfather without a home," Dove added.

Billy Rex also jumped on the bandwagon, louder than the previous two. "And they wrecked our Ice Grinders! Not cool at all, man! Not cool!"

Finally, Tritonn spoke again, this time, a newfound determination in his eyes. "Alright, everyone, listen up. They can't stay in the skies forever. Sooner or later, they will have to land. They will have to face us. And when that moment comes, we'll see how tough they are when not inside the safety of their little ship."

And for once, everybody agreed with him.

* * *

"... Should we go in?"

They were staring at the large entrance of the Sky Knight Council HQ for a good amount of minutes, now. Of course, all the shouts and calls for revenge and familiar voices proposing punishments that echoed from behind the closed doors weren't exactly encouraging them to do so. They heard things. Things said by people who, up until moments ago, they thought were their friends. Horrible punishments which, if Piper remembered correctly, had been declared illegal decades ago. For once, Stork was right about being paranoid.

The large, ornamental doors were mocking them. _Turn around_, they said. _We know you want to. Just run the other way_, they said.

The team's members exchanged a glance and each saw their own fears and worries mirrored in the other's eyes. Well, _almost_ each of them. Everyone except Stork. Ever since the Condor had been stolen, their friend had been simply... disconnected from reality, to put it bluntly. If he were his normal self, he would've already made a kilometer-long list of things that could – and _would_ – go wrong and read it to them at least thrice before they would've landed on the Terra. Now, he wasn't saying anything. He was just following the rest of them around like he was on autopilot. It reached a point where the team actually wanted him to go into ax-crazy ninja mode - at least _that_ would've been a sign that he was clinically still alive!

Finn took a deep breath. He put a hand on Junko's shoulder and looked him in the eyes with uncharacteristic seriousness."Buddy," he started solemnly, "if we're gonna die in there, I just want you to know that... I ate your last Sky Burger."

Junko blinked a couple of times, until his mind properly registered what his friend had just said. "Aw, Finn! I was saving that for the trip! Do you have any idea how hungry I've been these last–"

Aerrow had already pushed open the doors, causing Junko's complaint to remain unfinished.

Silence.

For a couple of seconds that felt like hours, time froze. Nobody moved and nobody spoke.

Then a shout. "_It's them_!"

"Uh..." Aerrow just wished that a giant hole would appear in the middle of the floor and swallow them all. "Hi, guys, we–"

"Well well well, look who has decided to honor us with their presence!" Harrier interrupted him, his voice filled with venom. "This is going to make things a lot easier."

Chaos erupted once again. The Storm Hawks backed away slowly, from the approaching crowd. Their eyes scanned the faces of their friends. None of them were anything close to friendly, not to mention forgiving. Some of them even drew their weapons and activated them.

Finn whimpered. "Aerrow, whenever you wanna tell us to run, it's fine with me!"

"We can't run away! That'll only prove them that they're right to hate us." Piper whispered back.

Finn hid behind Junko's larger frame. Next to him, Stork just continued to stare blankly forwards. Usually, he would've fainted before they'd even entered the room.

"Guys, be reasonable. We'd never attack you – you're our friends!" Aerrow said.

"Oh, really? You seemed to have forgotten it when you attacked us!"

"Please, if you'd just let us explain–"

"I don't think anyone needs explanations – we know the situation pretty well. You made it crystal-clear how things are, after all."

"If we really were to blame for all this, do you think we'd still be here, trying to convince you otherwise?" Piper asked.

"Well, you had pretty questionable reasons to attack us in the first place, but you still did it."

"It wasn't us! You have to believe us!"

"Why would we? What proof do you have?"

"Well... none, but we _do_ have an alibi. We were on a vacation on Tropica and the Condor had been stolen from us. Stork was the last one to leave the ship – he can tell you!" Piper said, pointing to the Merb.

Silence. It was as if Piper was talking to a dummy. Actually, she had higher chances of getting a reaction from a lifeless dummy than from Stork!

As the tension grew with each passing second, Junko found out he couldn't take it anymore. He was standing next to Stork, and thus, receiving ninety percent of the hostile glares, after all. He snapped his fingers in front of Stork's eyes, just maybe, maybe he'd snap out of it. Stork didn't even blink. Junko then took it upon himself to manually make Stork's head nod in agreement. Blushing heavily, the Wallop hid behind Aerrow, Piper and Finn.

"That... doesn't count. He's still in shock after losing the Condor," Piper said, looking away, in embarrassment. "But trust us – he almost never leaves it. In fact, if we'd have the Condor, he wouldn't even be here right now!"

Judging by the 'Are you kidding me?' looks they received from the Sky Knights, they didn't buy it. Piper didn't blame them. She resisted the urge to slap her forehead in embarrassment. It was one of her weakest and dumbest arguments to date. It sounded like something Finn would've come up with!

"This is just a big waste of time'" someone said. "Seize them, already!"

The Sky Knights advanced.

The Storm Hawks backed off.

Stork had absolutely no reaction.

As if on cue, the doors slammed open, letting a very irritated Starling stumble in.

"Blasted smoke…" Starling coughed and blinked rapidly a couple of times, trying to clear the tears from her eyes. A couple of coughs later and with a now-cleared vision, she noticed the crowd of people staring at her. Putting on an 'It's no big deal' attitude, she said: "Excuse my less than stellar entrance, please; the skyride was a bit… unreliable." With a final cough, she approached the gathering. "Oh, I see the most important people are already here. Shall we continue, then?"

"Actually, Starling, there's nothing to be continued. We all know what they've done. Now, they have to face the consequences. Of course, if you want to tell us what injustice they've done to you, then even better - more reasons to punish them," Blister said.

"I won't do such thing. In fact, I am here to defend them."

The other Sky Knights stared at her as if she was insane. "Your jokes are hilarious, but unfortunately, the situation doesn't call for them," Harrier said, flatly.

'I wouldn't joke about such are my friends and right now, they look like they could use some help to get out of this mess."

"So you side with the enemy!" Dove shouted.

"I am not siding with anybody! There are no sides, especially not on this matter. The real enemies are not the Storm Hawks. The enemies are the Cyclonians!"

"Yes, Starling, and the sky is blue. Ice is cold. Water is wet. Fire is hot. Merb cabbage is a crime against nature. The Cyclonians are the enemy." Harrier rolled his eyes. "Do you have any other mind-boggling revelations you'd like to share with us?"

"Actually, yes, I do. It wasn't the Storm Hawks who attacked all of you. The Cyclonians were the ones piloting their ship."

Silence.

Starling looked at each of her Sky Knight comrades. "Has _nobody_ thought about this?"

"Well, when we saw their ship, the Cyclonians weren't exactly the first people who crossed our minds!" Suzy Lu said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Just because it was their ship, that doesn't mean they were the ones piloting it!" Starling retorted.

"And how exactly have you reached this conclusion?" Harrier asked, impatiently.

"If you'd just shut up and let me finish, you will know. I was on a patrol mission near Polaris Point. That's when I encountered their ship." Starling glanced towards the team. "I hadn't seen them in a while and I wanted to pay them a visit, so I started making maneuvers to land in their hangar bay. Right before I was shot down, I saw Ravess firing an arrow from the landing strip."

Behind his teammates, Stork's eye twitched at the mention of Cyclonians on his beloved ship. Nobody noticed.

For a couple of seconds, the Sky Knights hesitated; pondering Starling's words and the Storm Hawks allowed themselves a glimmer of hope.

"This doesn't make any sense," one of the Rebel Ducks muttered.

"As much as we'd like to believe what Starling says, thing is, all the evidence points against you," Suzy Lu pointed out.

"What evidence would it take for that to happen?" Starling sighed.

_HOOOOOOONK_!

The extremely loud - and familiar noise - caused them to nearly jump out of their skins. Stork blinked a couple of times; looking as if the sound woke him up from a long sleep. "Great – what now?" someone yelled and, before anyone could answer, everybody was hurrying to get outside. None of the Storm Hawks knew what was going on but hey, something happened that distracted the attention of an angry mob; they weren't exactly complaining. Deciding to go with the flow, they all joined the crowd and in a few moments, were outside, on the elegant and paved streets of Atmosia.

They didn't expect what was waiting for them outside.

Up in the air, hovering above the rooftops, was the Condor... surrounded by at least a hundred Cyclonian air skimmers.

* * *

On the Condor's main deck, Master Cyclonis activated her crystal staff. "Atmosia, you have been warned." Her voice boomed through the air, echoing between the buildings. "These recent attacks were just the prelude of what's to come. I gave you the chance of surrendering peacefully. You chose to turn down my offer. Well, too bad. Because now, you have reached your deadline. Of course, you may want to fight back. Fight until the last man stands and all that fuss. I'll let you know that I'm more than happy to gran your wish, if that is going to be the case. You see, my reinforcements are on their way as we speak."

"_We_ speak? Who's _'we'_? Sounds to me like _she's_ the one having a monologue," Finn mumbled.

"_Silence_!" came the abrupt reply and a couple of people raised their eyebrows in Finn's direction, at which he simply shrugged.

Cyclonis continued. "For too long, the Terras have been separated; each with its own Sky Knight, each with its own culture. Now, all that is going to end. The Terras will no longer be divided, but united. United under one symbol. United under Cyclonia."


	4. Chapter 3

All the Terras united. It was the goal of many Sky Knights. Normally, the option to have this dream usually had a catch that really soured the deal. It being under Cyclonia was a pretty bad catch.

"You have until my personal fleet arrives to write up your conditions of surrender." Master Cyclonis continued, walking around the Condor. "If you do force me to wait until it arrives, the conditions will not be so favourable or flexible." Master Cylconis stared down at the crowded array of Sky Knights, all glaring up at the Condor. "Also, this shouldn't be needed to be said, but if any of you dare try to attack, know that after Atmos falls, the instigator will personally watch the destruction of their Terra. And before I give you the chance to talk amongst yourselves, I must thank the Storm Hawks, for this victory wouldn't have been possible without their help."

She then disappeared with the deactivation of the special crystal she was using. No matter how secure the victory was, it would have been foolish to actually be on board without having her warships around. The Storm Hawks had an annoying sense of luck on their side that made any plan in the danger of failing. Luckily, they were still stuck on Terra Tropica and couldn't interfere.

The Dark Ace scowled at the skeleton crew aboard the Condor; both Ravess and Snipe had been sent back out of concern that one would announce their presence too soon and the other would somehow smash everything up. The small force he had with him was also on edge, with direct orders from Master Cyclonis herself, not to fire unless any of the Sky Knights fired the first blow. Her plan of forcing them into surrender did make sense, but it would fail if they pushed them too far or gave them nothing else to loose. And then, Master Cyclonis would drop the blame solely on his shoulders, as he was the one in charge of this final move in this blasted war.

Of course, angering every Sky Knight in all of Atmosia didn't help things either. He stole a glance at the clock; only a few hours left before the warships came in and then everything would be finished at long last.

"So what's the plan, guys?" Aerrow turned to his teammates and his maybe-former friends.

"Plan?!" Harrier scoffed at the young Sky Knight. "You almost had us fooled, boy. We just heard Cyclonis thank you for your help!"

The grumble of angered agreement was running through the crowd, the mob once again focused on the Storm Hawks.

"Whoa there!" Starling barked out, moving in front of her young friends. "Have you all lost it?!" She glared at the group of adults who should have known better! "This is _exactly _what they want us to do – fight amongst ourselves!" She glared at them all; each seemed less ready to murder the four kids behind her. "And how can you believe that witch over them, who have been more then proving their honesty and loyalty these past years fighting the war?"

The mummer of shame and realization came through, with many looking downtrodden. "So what do you suggest we do; go fight them on the basic skimmers that we used to get here?" Harrier stared at her hard, seemingl actually angry at the situation and not at the lost time it cost him for once.

"Not exactly, but…" Blinking she turned her head around. "Wait a minute, where's Stork?"

And that's when they heard the shouts.

Ever since his baby was taken, things have been like a daze. Sure, he remembered waking up from being knocked out, learning that his baby was _stolen_ from him, and he lost his home. He remembered the painfully long and danger-ridden trip here. He remembered hearing all the stories and accusations against his friends and his baby, but it had _still_ washed over him. Everything had been a daze.

Until now.

His baby was back. Of course, there were several things he had to do to get her back. First was getting rid of those pesky skimmers around his ship. Using his secret controller for his ship, he activated the override functions and began to open fire. They took a surprisingly long time to respond, which was fine with him, as he was clearing the way to get back his ship. It was then when he spotted the Cyclonian skimmer that crashed into the top of the Terra. Then things became a daze once more.

An angry daze.

* * *

When life gave you sky lemons, you made sky lemonade. When life gave you an option to fight back in a previously no-win situation, you took it. That was obvious enough for all the Sky Knights to get onto their skimmers and fly to battle; not understanding how or why the Condor was opening fire against the Cyclonians, nor did they really care. This was their chance to fight back and try to win the day.

Aerrow had, of course, diverged from the agreed upon plan of just assaulting the skimmer air force and then take the Condor down or back. He went straight for it, determined to wrestle it back from enemy hands. Glad that he still had his own skimmer intact – well _mostly,_ as Radarr's chair was still broken – he raced back to the ship in no time and avoided the shots from the Cyclonians with ease.

Landing was not an easy task though. It seemed that whoever was at the wheel was gone, as it was pointed towards to the Wasteland and going at ridiculous speeds. After getting back onboard his ship, he began to hear screams of anger, terror and…traps being set off? Stork was here?!

"Oh, that's not good."

The Cyclonian troops, elite enough in their classes to be somewhat accepted by the Dark Ace, had a very long list of different events they were trained and ready for. This event, however, they had no training for.

It seems that a class on how to deal with an angry Merb on a quickly crashing cruiser ship, who was setting off traps, was in order for next time.

_If_ there was a next time, as another trooper was sent out a trap door. The last solider, besides the Dark Ace, stood with his back to the main room of the Condor after closing the door to the enraged, and possibly crazy, Merb. The Dark Ace was furious and already threw several of the small crew out the window when he learned that they had lost all control over the ship. He couldn't really blame the Dark Ace for being angry as he had supposedly spent the most time on the ship and never even looked for a separate control device during all the time he flew it. Which was pretty frequent, as he often heard at the bars from the man himself.

Master Cyclonis was not going to be happy at _all._

"Sir! The Merb is advancing and we just lost Yori-_eeeeee_!" He screamed as the floor gave away, revealing another trap door! He went quickly through the belly of the Condor and out into the sky. Opening his parachute, he let the wind guide him to a lower self on the nearby Terra to be picked up later.

Screaming in rage, the Dark Ace paced around the controls of the Condor with his sword activated when an idea came to him. He held his sword up to stab the controls when an enraged shout came from…above! Looking up a fraction of a second to slow; the Merb dropped down and punched him clear across the room. Already the Merb was trying in vain to get control of his ship back, but it was too late. They were already damaged when the Merb hit his sword arm into the controls; a side effect only worsened by the Merb's frantic attempt to steer. So he laughed. Then he stopped when the short blade that glowed blue was pressed against his neck.

"It's over, Ace!" Aerrow shouted at him, his eyes darting to the Merb. What a foolish mistake.

"I think not, Aerrow." Using his legs to knock the kid over, he pushed himself towards the window. "The Condor is either going to go down, or we'll just take it again." He laughed, activating his retractable hand-glider and bailing out the window, hoping that whatever contingency plan that Cyclonis had for this event worked as it was supposed to.

The words 'take it again' caused a reaction in Stork. It caused him to shout out, "I'll rather blow her up than let you have your grummy hands on her again!". It also caused him to activate the ship's secret self destruction, only to be used if the enemy ever got close to taking over the ship.

It also caused Aerrow's eyes to widen as he saw his friend hit the button, knowing that Stork had no parachute or balloon to use to escape the Condor. He reached forwards to try and stop his friend when it seemed Stork was finally back in control of himself. The Merb looked around at the ever-increasing Wastelands greeting him, the button he just pushed and his friend running over to him. Over the centre of the room…

"I'm sorry, Aerrow." He pulled the lever, ejecting Aerrow from the Condor, just before the nose of the ship hit the ground.

It was a fierce, long and painful battle for the Sky Knights, but they were gaining the upper hand. The earlier confusion had given them the chance they needed and the plan to knock out the riders and use the skimmers was helping them even the odds even more so. Although, knocking them out of the air was not so easy, with the lack of speed and usual tactics of just damaging the rides working heavily against them.

"Chika-cha," Finn grinned, sniping another solider off their skimmers from the top of the council tower. It was wisely suggested that he'd do more good on ground than in the air, letting another Sky Knight use a quicker ride to inflict more pain, considering his usual luck of his ride being cut in half, along with the other bit.

"Good one, Finn!" Pipper shouted, blasting away with her crystals. She turned her eyes towards the clouds; where the Condor, Stork and Aerrow were. Of course, he'd be the first one to break away from the pla–

It was then when a very loud and resounding _boom_! was heard, causing a pause in the fight. Piper's face fell in disbelief, Finn's grin dropping away in favour of pure horror. Junko looked confused, the realization not fully upon him, but let out a soft 'no' when it did.

Then it started to rain.

Derbies, in fact. Of the Condor.

It was in a wide arc, many pieces falling back into the Wastelands, but very few did manage to make it to land. One such piece, that managed to crash into the middle of the tower itself was the emblem of the Storm Hawks, cracked down the middle from the pressure.

"Fall back!" The shout came from below the Terra itself; the Dark Ace flying around on his glider. "Fall back!" The Dark Ace had already grabbed a skimmer from one of his own soldiers.

The realization of what happened began to take over everyone; there was outraged cries of vengeance but that was few among the depressed looks across most of the adults faces. Once more, the Condor had fallen. Once more, the leader of the Storm Hawks had fallen.

* * *

**The last two chapters were written by me. This one is by Evilhumour Author. You may or may not notice some tiny differences in the writing style - if you don't, then even better. I guess it means we're just _that_ awesome as writers. ;) **


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